As Hooda gets free run in Haryana Congress, Surjewala, Bishnoi mount a pushback

The 67-year-old Dalit leader, Bhan is a known loyalist of Leader of the Opposition and ex-chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He replaced Kumari Selja, a Dalit leader and Hooda’s rival, who resigned from the HPCC chief’s post.

On Sunday, AICC general secretary in charge of communication, Randeep Singh Surjewala, who hails from Haryana, made an intriguing statement while addressing a news conference in Chandigarh that “Kuldeep Bishnoi would have been the best state unit president”.

Despite his intense lobbying for a leadership role in the state unit, senior leader and Adampur MLA Bishnoi could not land any position in the new HPCC.

Bishnoi’s supporters had expressed their resentment on social media soon after the AICC announced the revamped state unit. Addressing them in a Twitter post later, Bishnoi said that like them “he was also very angry”, but urged them to keep patience.

A Jat stalwart Hooda, who has majority of the party MLAs on his side, had been seeking Selja’s removal for a long time. After its faction-riven Punjab unit suffered a rout in the recent Assembly polls, the Congress leadership did not want to take any risk in Haryana. Hence its move replacing Selja with Hooda confidant Bhan as the HPCC president, while seeking to maintain a caste balance (both belong to the Dalit community), was clearly aimed at giving a “free hand” to Hooda in the state party affairs in the run-up to the coming polls.

Soon after his elevation, Bhan himself claimed “there is no leadership issue in the party’s state unit now” and that “we all shall be working under the able leadership and guidance of Hooda and take Congress to new heights”.

Apart from the dominant Hooda camp, there have been various Haryana Congress factions affiliated to several leaders – including Bishnoi (Hisar), Kumari Selja (Ambala), Surjewala (Kaithal), Kiran Choudhry (Bhiwani) and Ajay Singh Yadav (Gurgaon) – which are based on factors like their political heft, caste and support bases.

The appointment of four HPCC working presidents reflected the Congress leadership’s bid to placate all the factions. They are Shruti Choudhry (Kiran’s daughter), Ram Kishan Gujjar (Selja loyalist), Jitender Kumar Bhardwaj (Hooda camp), and Suresh Gupta (Surjewala loyalist), with Ajay Singh Yadav being appointed as the AICC OBC department chairman.

The statements made by Bishnoi and Surjewala, however, indicated that the rumblings of discontent have continued in the state unit with Hooda’s opponents calling the new HPCC chief his “rubber stamp”. They have always accused Hooda of sidelining them.

In the caste-centric Haryana politics based on the Jat-and-non-Jat factors, it will be incumbent on Hooda to take influential party leaders from various communities on board as he gears up to spearhead the party in the next polls.

Among senior Haryana Congress leaders, both Surjewala, a Jat leader, and Bishnoi, a prominent non-Jat face, are also believed to be chief ministerial aspirants. By throwing his weight behind Bishnoi, Surjewala has signalled a pushback against the dominant Hooda camp, which has got a shot in the arm by Bhan’s elevation.

Bishnoi’s father late Bhajan Lal, who had been a three-time CM, was known as a prominent practitioner of non-Jat politics. In senior Haryana Congress leaders’ meeting held by top party leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi last month, Bishnoi had staked his claim over the HPCC chief’s post, projecting himself as a non-Jat leader. It was, however, shot down by Hooda’s son Deepender, a Rajya Sabha MP, and some other leaders, who dismissed his claim as “untenable” amid the prevailing political situation.